I thought I read somewhere that the pic was from 'There and Back Again.' You bring up an interesting scenario, but I think it could be the other way around with Bard showing Legolas a thing or two. Especially, as it would be after the death of Smaug by the arrow of Bard. This would be a nice touch to explain why Legolas is so amazing with his Bow in Lord of the Rings.

I've been always curious how they will put leggy into 'the aftermath of Lake Town' part since I saw this picture. Legolas going to Lake Town instead of his father? Hope not. Thranduil turning his army away from the Lonely Mountain to help dying lakemen first is one of my favorite scenes in TH.

I've been always curious how they will put leggy into 'the aftermath of Lake Town' part since I saw this picture. Legolas going to Lake Town instead of his father? Hope not. Thranduil turning his army away from the Lonely Mountain to help dying lakemen first is one of my favorite scenes in TH.

I had never actually considered that this is what he was doing.

The reason I had conceived for the elves being there was that we saw in an earlier scene Thranduil paying homage to Thror. I had just assumed that the Smaug attack happened shortly afterwards, when the elves were leaving for Mirkwood again, and they had turned back when the devastation begun; though they ultimately chose not to help.

The reason I had conceived for the elves being there was that we saw in an earlier scene Thranduil paying homage to Thror. I had just assumed that the Smaug attack happened shortly afterwards, when the elves were leaving for Mirkwood again, and they had turned back when the devastation begun; though they ultimately chose not to help.

Thranduil turns his forces to Lake-town after Bard's messengers beseach him for help after Smaug's attack. He leaves half of them there to aid the survivors and continues on to Erebor with the rest of his force, assuming that Thorin and his followers have been slain by the dragon. It is possible that Legolas is left at Long Lake to help and protect the Lake-town survivors, 'though I expect that he instead accompanies his father and Bard's army to Lonely Mountain. 'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring

This is a nice description from the book. They could still do this, showing the elves as humanitarians than merely a military force going after treasure. It would show the elves' wisdom even in the face of distrust from other peoples. I would like to see Lee Pace get a few lines and a short scene of this with his advisors urging him to hustle up to the Mountain for the treasure, and he decides to go to Lake Town first, and then leave his son, Legolas behind to help.

It would also give an opportunity to see Legolas becoming more part of the greater world and using his considerable skills to help people in a cooperative way, and that might even help people's perception of his character as he appears in LOTR. That would be the way I would do it anyway, so that his character has a five film arc.

"help people's perception of his character as he appears in LOTR"
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That would be nice to see. It would be helpful if it was something that went towards explaining his extremely negative reaction towards Gimli at the start of the fellowship quest, perhaps more specific than just the vague 'elves and dwarves don't like each other'.

So why didn't he help the dwarves? After all that was after Smaug had attacked them, he didn't even try to offer humanitarian aid, he just turned his party elk around and took off. :)

Either he did send aid after the fact but the dwarves refused after his initial "betrayal" (that little army would have been crushed by Smaug in an instant), or, more likely to my mind, he blamed the dwarves for bringing Smaug there in the first place and refused aid on those grounds. After all, it was Thror's greed that brought the dragon to the neighbourhood.

I was under the impression he didn't help anyone in the TH. Dale was already burned to a crisp so there wasn't anyone to help there or so I thought. His lack of action and subsequently the lack of help from anyone during the dwarves struggles in subsequent events was what hardened Thorin's heart against the elves. My impression anyway tho I could be wrong.

Hardly nice to abandon the people because it's king went nuts with dragon sickness, either way Thranduil's apparently abandonment of even humanitarian aid to the dwarves in the aftermath hardly casts him as a stand up...elf. :) So why does he decide to help the humans of Laketown? Are dwarves just beneath him?

Hardly nice to abandon the people because it's king went nuts with dragon sickness, either way Thranduil's apparently abandonment of even humanitarian aid to the dwarves in the aftermath hardly casts him as a stand up...elf. :)

If Thranduil considers the dwarves collectively responsible (they did dig the gold and flaunted their wealth as a nation, not just under orders of their king), then it's possible that he refused aid on those grounds. But as I said, we don't even know if he did offer any aid or not, at this point. We only have Thorin's possibly skewed perspective on what actually happened.

It can also be made a matter of character growth for Thranduil when he offers aid to the people of Laketown that he refused before. We still know almost nothing about his personality, issues or actions. You can't judge him either way based on two silent scenes. We need to wait and see him in person to find out what his motives and ideals actually are.

So why didn't he help the dwarves? After all that was after Smaug had attacked them, he didn't even try to offer humanitarian aid, he just turned his party elk around and took off. :)

Remember, these are two, separate incidents under very different circumstances. After Smaug attacked Erebor and Dale, the dragon was still alive and an active threat. The Elvenking determined that the risk to his people was too great. In addition, he had little love (much less trust) for dwarves. Honestly, the whole scene makes no sense to anyone familiar with the book. Lonely Mountain is several day's march from Thranduil's realm. His forces should not have been able to arrive at the site until long after the dwarves had fled.

When King Thranduil aided the Lake-men, he knew that Smaug was dead. Believing Thorin and his companions to be dead as well, there was no significant risk to helping the Lake-town survivors. 'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring